5 ways to serve distressed real estate owners 
Become expert on risks of short sales, strategic default
By Bernice Ross, Thursday, September 1, 2011.
Image courtesy of arquera.Even though the number of foreclosures may be declining, there are still many owners who are struggling with the issue of walking away from their homes.
How can you identify these owners before they lose their homes? And how can you help them possibly avoid foreclosure?
The upsurge in foreclosures has created a huge demand in the residential rental market. In many areas, rents are actually higher than the cost of owning a home. The issue is simply one of supply and demand. So what can you do to help people who are in the early stages of foreclosure or who may be considering a strategic default? Here are five options:
1. Early warning signals
I recently spoke with Curtis Fenn of TheRedX.com (full disclosure -- the company is a past sponsor of my Awesome Females in Real Estate conference) about a new tool that it has just released. While a number of companies such as RealtyTrac and ForeclosureRadar provide information about the location of properties going into default, TheRedX provides the owners' contact information and scrubs it against the Do Not Call list.
The advantages of having a potential seller's contact information early on are enormous. Knowing when an owner first goes into foreclosure allows you to strategically target a print marketing campaign to motivate him to visit your website or to contact you about obtaining help on his foreclosure.
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